Indian Ocean

American  

[in-dee-uhn oh-shuhn] / ˈɪn di ən ˈoʊ ʃən /

noun

1. an ocean south of Asia, east of Africa, and west of Australia, with its deepest section in the Java Trench. 27,243,268 square miles (70,560,000 square kilometers).

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Indian Ocean British  

noun

1. an ocean bordered by Africa in the west, Asia in the north, and Australia in the east and merging with the Antarctic Ocean in the south. Average depth: 3900 m (13 000 ft). Greatest depth (off the Sunda Islands): 7450 m (24 442 ft). In December 2004 a major undersea earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami which affected large areas of the ocean as far away as east Africa, and killed an estimated 226 435 people. Area: about 73 556 000 sq km (28 400 000 sq miles)

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Indian Ocean Cultural  

1. Third-largest ocean (after the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean), extending from southern Asia to Antarctica and from eastern Africa to southeastern Australia.

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Etymology

Origin of Indian Ocean

First recorded in 1580–90

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Indian Ocean

This region lies where the tropical western Pacific meets the eastern Indian Ocean and contains some of the planet's warmest ocean waters.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026

Above-normal sea temperatures are also expected in other parts of the world including the Indian Ocean, tropical Atlantic and around parts of the Australian coast.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

But attacks have multiplied in 2026, particularly in the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, which links the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

In the late 19th century, Tamara Surani Fernando notes in “Shallow Blue Empire,” this problem of yield confronted the British, who oversaw the trade of three important pearling sites in the Indian Ocean.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

He lives with his two children, Merlin and Angel, and their mother, Maria, in the little guest house next to my house on the shore of the Indian Ocean.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall